I've been watching several Korean movies lately, because of all the praise they've received from the critics, and needless to say, the praise is certainly not in vain. There's some really amazing cinema in South Korea. Although reading all the subtitles is a pain if you don't know Korean, it offers an interesting insight into a culture that seems like a combination of Japanese and American. Here are a couple of the best Korean films I've seen.
Taegukgi Hwinalrimyeo
Title translation: "Waving the Flag of Korea." This is arguably the best war film of all time. Nations do not fight wars, citizens do, and this film powerfully drives that point home. In 1950's Seoul, Lee Jin-Seok (played by young Korean actor Won Bin) and his older brother Lee Jin-Tae (played by Korea's most popular actor Jang Dong-gun) are enjoying a strong family life of perfect happiness. Suddenly, they find their lives turned upside down as soldiers of the South Korean government seize them, all men aged 18 to 30 are taken, and they are forced to take up arms, despite their lack of training, against the suddenly approaching North Koreans in their sneak attack that starts the Korean War. On one brutal battlefield after another, the bonds of family are put to increasingly demanding tests as Jin-Tae – originally driven by his responsibility to protect his younger brother – continues to further exhaust his physical and emotional prowess despite the protests of Jin-Seok. He learns that he is a good soldier, one with a talent for inspiring others as well as an unanticipated thirst for killing the enemy. Eventually, these two brothers – once bound by a love for family – find themselves at odds within this new brotherhood of war, and the pressures to prove one another continue to exact heavier and heavier tolls as the war escalates. As circumstances evolve, the brothers inevitably find themselves on opposite sides of a losing conflic, and they must find a path to redemption and reconciliation that can save both of them. I highly recommend this film because it really shows how true bonds of love and loyalty can never be broken. This is the war movie that war movie fans have been dreaming about, and the movie that will get non-war movie fans into war movies. I give it a perfect 10/10.
Shiri
The title of the film refers to a fish found in Korean fresh-water streams. At one point one of the main characters has a monologue wherein he describes how the waters from both North and South Korea flow freely together, and how the fish can be found in either water without knowing which country it belongs to. This is the central theme of the movie. An elite group of North Korean soldiers are put through a brutal training mission. Under the auspices of their commander, Park Mu-young (played by popular Korean actor Choi Min-sik), they will be sent into South Korea as "sleeper agents" to be reactivated at some later date. The most promising of the group is Lee Bang-hee, a female sniper who systematically kills several key South Korean government figures over the next few years. Meanwhile, South Korea's OP Service is searching for Lee. The agent in charge of her case, Yu Jong-won (Han Suk-kyu) has nightmares about her murdering both him and his partner, Lee Jang-gil (Song Kang-ho). Yu is also currently engaged to Myung-hyun (Kim Yoon-jin), the owner of a fish and aquarium supply store with a mysterious history. They are happy together, but Yu is worried that he cannot tell Myung-hyun about the real nature of his job due to his security clearances (as far as she knows, he has a bureaucratic desk job). Ultimately, the case becomes far more than Yu and Lee would ever have imagined, and they begin to question the idea of a friend or enemy, because it is only the circumstances of the world around them that made North and South Korea enemies. It is a very philosophical movie with a touching ending, so I also recommend it. I give it a 9.5/10.
